George Onslow

1784-1853

A nephew of the Second Earl Onslow, George was born in Clermont Ferrand in central France to an English father and French mother.

His father Edward was expected to follow the males of the Onslow family into a Parliamentary rotten borough. However he became engulfed in scandal with accusations of homosexuality and he fled to France.

Whatever his preferences they did not get in the way of marriage and childbirth.

George, fo all his English ancestry is usually regarded as a French composer. Onslow seems to have kept the family fortune intact and young George wanted for nothing. He studied piano in Hamburg and London and studied composition as so many of his contemporaries seem to have done, under Antoine Reicha.

Onslow developed quickly and by the late 1820s had several operas and a variety of chamber music to his name.

In his lifetime he was referred to as the French Beethoven and was showered with honours, including Légion d’honneur, honorary membership of the Royal Philharmonic Society, membership of the Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreundeand he was appointed Director of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris in preference to Berlioz.

Once again as with many of the composers we cover here, we find his musical star has faded fast. His work is all but unheard these days